48 



One of the important results of recent palseontological 

 research, is the law of brain-growth, found to exist among 

 extinct mammals, and to some extent in other vertebrates. 

 According to this law, as I have briefly stated it elsewhere : 

 "AIL Tertiary mammals had small brains. There was, also, a 

 gradual increase in the size of the brain during this period. 

 This increase was confined mainly to the cerebral hemispheres, 

 or higher portions of the brain. In some groups, the convolu- 

 tions of the brain have gradually become more complicated. 

 In some, the cerebellum and the olfactory lobes have even 

 diminished in size." More recent researches render it probable 

 that the same general law of brain-growth holds good for birds 

 and reptiles from the Mesozoic to the present time. The Cre- 

 taceous birds, that have been investigated with reference to this 

 point, had brains only about one-third as large in proportion as 

 those nearest allied among living species. The Dinosaurs from 

 our Western Jurassic follow the same law, and had brain cav- 

 ities vastly smaller than any existing reptiles. Many other 

 facts point in the same direction, and indicate that the general 

 law will hold good for all extinct vertebrates. 



Palaeontology has rendered great service to the more recent 

 science of Archasology. At the beginning of the present period, 

 a re-examination of the evidence in regard to the antiquity of 

 the human race was going on, and important results were soon 

 attained. Evidence in favor of the presence of man on the 

 earth at a period far earlier than the accepted chronology of six 

 thousand years would imply, had been gradually accumulating ; 

 but had been rejected from time to time by the highest authori- 

 ties. In 1823, Cuviei - , Brongniart, and JBuckland, and later, 

 Lyell, refused to admit that human relics, and the bones of 

 extinct animals found with them, were of the same geological 

 age, although experienced geologists, such as Boue" and others, 

 had been convinced by collecting them. Christol, Serres, and . 

 Tournal, in France, and Schmerling in Belgium, had found 

 human remains in caves, associated closely with those of various 

 extinct mammals, and other similar facts were on record. 



